Injuries wreck Sampson’s plans for Rockets

Rockets acting coach Kelvin Sampson wanted to consider the work to be done and a chance to do it, but his mind went instead to a different list.

After a much-needed day of rest after the whirlwind of a back-to-back and side trip to Minnesota to be with Kevin McHale and his family, the Rockets will practice Friday before hosting the Jazz on Saturday and then have two more days to work before taking on the Lakers.

Normally, little encourages an NBA coach more than a schedule with more practice days than game nights, and Sampson knew the youthful Rockets needed to work more than to play. But before he could consider beating defensive traps or tightening transition defense, his thoughts went to the injury list.

With forward Chandler Parsons listed as day-to-day with a strained right shoulder following an MRI on Thursday and forward Carlos Delfino close to returning from a groin injury, the Rockets hope the first step to getting better will be getting well. If not, different remedies will be in order.

“We have to find out who we’re going to have first,” Sampson said. “Chandler is so important to our defense. He had 13 rebounds the other night versus Chicago. Chandler’s been playing great. All of a sudden, you don’t have him.

Key players hurting
“We’re hoping to get Carlos back. A lot of our issues were personnel-based. I think, ‘We have to clean this up.’ We get Chandler and Carlos back, some of that stuff will get cleaned up.”

Wednesday, Daequan Cook started with Parsons out, giving the Rockets a jolt of scoring with a season-high 18 points plus seven rebounds and four assists.

“I’ll defend Daequan a little bit,” Sampson said. “He played 38 minutes when he had not been playing at all, basically.”

But with Delfino and Cook unavailable to come off the bench, the Rockets were short-handed on the wings.

Marcus Morris filled in at small forward but remained more effective as a range-shooting power forward, where he could draw big men away from the paint and often get open looks over defenders unwilling to venture all the way to the 3-point line. At small forward, he was defended by Thabo Sefolosha, who excels defending the perimeter, while Thunder power forwards remained in position to block shots at the rim.

Guards tested
The greater issue Wednesday was with the Oklahoma City traps of guards Jeremy Lin and James Harden. That got the ball out of their hands and limited them to just one field goal in the first half. By the second half, the Rockets adjusted, with Lin especially finding the seams in the defense to set up Omer Asik and Patrick Patterson behind defenders trapping outside.

Still, if the Rockets don’t see the same sort of defenses against the Jazz and Lakers, they will in the next three games against the Spurs (home and away) and Mavericks.

“I was really pleased with Patrick and O,” Sampson said. “Those guys really competed. But our guards have to be better at recognizing defensive schemes and move the ball. And our coaches, we have to do a better job. It starts with me. I have to do a better job putting these guys in the right spots.”

Those kinds of corrections might be made at practices, but most of all, the Rockets will have to handle the sort of scoring bursts that are certain to come in the next five games as they did in the last five road games, all losses.

“We have to get better at handling adversity,” Sampson said. “We can’t revert. That’s going to be an important part of our offense and defense.”

The Rockets expect to be tested. Not only do they bring a 1-7 record into a stretch of games against Western Conference teams, they have lost to the next two opponents, the Jazz and Lakers.

“It’s going to be important,” Parsons said. “These next two are going to be must-win at home. They’re good teams. We didn’t forget what Utah did to us at their place. We owe them. Then we have L.A. coming in.”

Trials by fire
Lin disputed the notion the Rockets will be stepping up in weight class after last week’s roll through Eastern Conference visitors Chicago, New York and Toronto, but he said rematches with teams that have beaten the Rockets would be needed trials by fire.

“I wouldn’t say the Chicago Bulls or Knicks weren’t,” Lin said. “I thought they were good competition. But definitely, we’ll be tested against Utah and L.A. We just dropped games to them. We’ve got to grow up.”